


The Death-Trap

by Ischa



Series: Halloween 2014 [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Gen, M/M, Necromancy, Sexual Content, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-02-23 05:34:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2536034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ischa/pseuds/Ischa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Perez wants to do is make some money and get out of town, but if you anger Death things just aren’t that easy anymore. </p><p>
  <i> “Thinking,” Mort answered. “It’s a bit late for that.”</i>
  <br/>
  <i>“What?” Perez asked again. He was confused and his heart was beating way too fast and there was something expending in the dark corner just behind Mort. Something black and oozing and sick.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CatchingDarkness (MoonlightMuse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightMuse/gifts).



> Beta: Icalynn <3 
> 
> Prompt was: So I know you said fandoms only, but after reading your Bone Season, I would love to read more of your original work!  
> So I had a prompt...it's a bit weird.  
> but what if there was a necromancer for hire who brings people back from the dead for a price  
> ...and then there was a hot death god/grim reaper who wanted to know who was ruining all his "hard work" by bringing back the people he had just killed...  
> *laughs nervously and hides under rock*  
> Hope I'm not ruining the rules by requesting this, and it's totally fine if this doesn't really interest you.  
> Love you're writing, and can't wait to read more stories from you! :)  
> xx  
> For catchingdarkness

Perez hadn’t been thrilled to discover that he could bring back dead things. Bugs, road kill, people. But it seemed that things were looking up now. There was a market for his skills, no matter how weird and disgusting. 

And you could make a living – shady as it was – with it. 

He stepped out of his ruined clothes and into the shower. He hated the decomposing the most and he shuddered at the thought of the guy who brought his dead girl back in that state. He didn’t want to know what he was going to do with her. People were crazy. That one was sure.

He wasn’t going to do this much longer. He really needed to get out of town and maybe even the country, because raising some rich guy’s dead lover was one thing, but doing jobs for the mafia a whole other deal. 

He sighed. It wasn’t like there was a manual to being a modern necromancer. Maybe he could write one. It was getting too hot here. Mafia jobs were messy and dangerous. And would probably get him killed. 

He leaned his head against the tiles and let the water wash everything away. 

He was tense as hell. What he needed after one of those jobs was a good fuck, getting drunk and passing out in his bed. Sleeping for hours. The order of it was debatable. 

~+~

The bar was kinda shady in an old-fashioned way, and Perez liked the gothic décor and the kids who had no clue about life and death. But pretended they did and wanted to dance with hundred year old bones. He took another swig of his drink. Sometimes he took some of the pretty white faced girls or boys up on their offers and went home with them. Kissed their pale skin and sucked bruises into their flesh. And left them breathing heavily once he was done. He liked feeling their heartbeats under his palm and their moist breath against his lips. Maybe that was why he was here tonight too. 

The dead had no pulse and no breath and they were – disgusting. Perez shuddered, thinking about his last customer and the girl, the fucking girl and how her eyes were gone. 

He startled as someone slid onto the stool beside him. Dressed in black, or something that was even darker than black. He risked a glance at the person. He couldn’t tell right away if it was a girl or boy and didn’t care either. The profile was perfect, pretty and – seductive in a way that was hard to describe and made Perez’s heart clench and stutter and his guts feel all kinds of things. The most important part was that his cock took interest at once. That hardly happened anymore. 

He was staring at the person, at those lips, perfect pale pedals and he wanted to reach out and touch and bury himself in that body. The person turned then as if sensing Perez’s need. 

“Mort,” he said. The face was androgynous as was the voice, but Perez knew him from somewhere. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. 

“Perez,” he said. And didn’t ask if they knew each other. 

“How drunk are you?” Mort asked, there was a smile curling at his lips. 

Not enough, Perez thought. Enough not to care that his brain wanted him to take a step back and think. “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked instead of answering the question. 

Mort nodded. Perez got another round. 

They didn’t speak as they downed their drinks and then Mort looked at him again and raised an eyebrow. It was a question or maybe an invitation. Perez was still mulling that over when Mort said: “You’re taking me home?” 

“Yes,” Perez answered. He usually didn’t, but – he wanted and damned be the consequences. 

He stumbled a bit as he got up, but Mort didn’t try to catch him or lend a hand to steady his steps. Perez didn’t know if he was annoyed or not. 

“You have a car?” Mort asked. 

Perez nodded. “Too drunk to drive,” he said. 

Mort kept silent. He was waiting. Perez frowned. 

“A taxi then?” Mort said. 

“Yes,” Perez replied. 

~+~

They didn’t talk on the way to Perez’s apartment and Mort didn’t try to feel him up. Perez didn’t either, even if he really wanted to run his hands all over that cold looking body. 

Once they were inside Perez’s apartment he felt shy and drunk and sick. Faint. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Maybe all he needed tonight was to get drunk and pass out and not – Mort touched his neck with two fingertips and Perez felt it like an electroshock. He gasped. Mort’s fingers were cold. So very fucking cold, like a corpse freshly out of a morgue’s freezer. 

“Jesus,” he hissed stepping away. 

Mort looked at him and Perez looked back. He seemed so very, very familiar. Perez rubbed at his eyes. He wanted to be alone. He needed to think. “I think-”

“It’s a bit late for that,” Mort said. 

“What?” 

“Thinking,” Mort answered. “It’s a bit late for that.” 

“What?” Perez asked again. He was confused and his heart was beating way too fast and there was something expending in the dark corner just behind Mort. Something black and oozing and sick. 

Mort sighed and it shook the whole apartment. “You weren’t thinking when you raised Rose Winters. Where you?” 

“Who?” 

“The dead girl five nights ago?” Mort said. “Her name was Rose. She had finally found rest from her abusive husband. You gave her back to him.” 

“I didn’t – she’s dead!” Perez said, he was feeling the panic rise inside his body. 

“She was. I took her,” Mort said. “Or maybe she gave herself over to me. You know she slit her wrists.”

“You took her,” Perez said nearly toneless. 

“Don’t I look familiar? We’ve seen each other so often lately, Oscar Ribas Perez,” Mort said and that dark think in the corner became darker and twisted and ugly. It was crawling in Perez’s direction. 

Mort did look familiar. He – Perez shook his head. It was not possible. He didn’t took death home. He didn’t invite Death into his house. He didn’t – Mort smiled with those perfect pale pedal lips. Fuck. “I was afraid for a second, that I lost my touch,” Mort said, still smiling and coming closer. 

Perez couldn’t move, didn’t want to, because Mort was still beautiful and frightening. “What do you want from me now?” 

Mort cocked his head. “I want you to stop doing what you’re doing. The dead need to stay dead. It’s the natural order of things.” He reached out and stroked a cold finger over Perez’s cheek. It felt like he was being cut. He shuddered. “And you need to repay what you’ve stolen, of course.” 

“Repay?” Perez asked. “How?” But he knew. He knew. 

Mort smiled. “You should be glad I like your pretty face. I’ll let you choose. A death for a death.”

Perez swallowed. He had raised eleven people over the last year. Only the last five were paid for really well. The first two were an accident. “Nine then,” he said. 

Mort was in his personal space in a flash. His cold was seeping into Perez`s bones. “Don’t anger me by trying to bargain, Perez,” he hissed. “Eleven.” 

“Can’t I just give back those I raised?” Perez asked. 

Mort laughed. Even his laugh was cold. “They can’t die twice. They are doomed to wander the earth forever.”

Perez shuddered. Was that true? That poor woman. 

“You didn’t think about the consequences, did you?” Mort said. “You’re young, so stupid. And yet so powerful. In the old age the necromancers could only bring people back for a few hours, days at most. They didn’t give life back, they just borrowed somewhere, redirected. You…you are something else. Maybe because there aren’t that many of you left anymore. Pay me back what’s mine.” 

“What about Rose?” Perez asked. 

“What about her?” 

“What will happen with her, if she can’t die twice?” 

Mort gave him a look, it was nearly kind. “I told you-”

“Yes! But there must be a way!” Perez cut in sharply. 

“No, there isn’t.”

“There must be,” Perez said. 

“Even if there was,” Mort replied. “I don’t think someone like you would pay the price.” 

“Right,” Perez said. Because Mort was right. He wasn’t a good person. He hadn’t cared before. Hadn’t cared about the consequences. It didn’t matter what happened to that woman. She was dead. 

“Maybe I should make you,” Mort replied “As a punishment.” His voice a cold hissing sound. The shadows in the corners were stirring again. 

Perez shivered and couldn’t stop. “I’ll pay you back and I won’t raise anyone else. I promise.” 

Mort smiled. “We’ll see.” He reached out again and grabbed Perez by the neck, his fingers branding Perez’s skin. “Remember how that feels,” Mort said and pressed his lips to Perez’s own. 

It burned and his heart stopped, a cold so deep it felt like he was dying engulfed him and then Mort was stepping away and Perez took in a sharp breath. 

“I’ll give you a year,” he said and then just vanished, but he left a small dark shadow in a corner. And it was slowly creeping closer, attaching itself to Perez’s own shadow. Wrapping itself up in it, merging. 

Perez had the feeling he would never be warm again.


	2. Chapter 2

~Two~

The shadow was a living thing. Perez could feel it slithering around him. Even in absolute darkness the shadow was darker. And it was – alien. Alien was the word to describe it. Wrong and – 

“Disgusting,” Perez said under his breath. 

_Better watch your mouth._ Something said. 

Perez rubbed a hand over his face. Going crazy, he thought. 

_Probably, but not just yet._ The voice said again. 

Perez looked up from the notebook he had been scribbling in. He looked around. Nothing, the only thing that was there was him and – the shadow. 

_Stop calling me The Shadow. I have a name, you know?_ It sounded between amused and offended. 

Great, Perez thought, Mort gave him a watchdog that was also talking. In his head. “I’m hearing voices. Like a crazy person.” 

_And now you’re talking to yourself, like a crazy person._ It said again. 

Perez shivered. “Stop talking to me.”

_I’m bored. You’re boring. And this gig is boring too._

“Take it up with Mort then. I didn’t ask for this.”

_You kinda did. You raised the dead carelessly for money._

“So what did you do to get stuck with me?” Perez shot back. 

There was silence. Blessed fucking silence. Perez went back to his notes. Planning a murder wasn’t easy and he didn’t have that much time to pay his debt back to Mort. He couldn’t stay in one city for long. Once he killed that person and Mort collected their soul or whatever he had to get out of town. Money was short. Mort obviously didn’t care for Perez’s mortal needs. 

~+~

_It’s Vanya._ The voice said. 

Perez groaned and buried his face in the pillow. It was way too early for this. “Shut up.”

_I’m not going away, you know? Not as long as you still have a debt to pay to Mort. We can try to get along._

“You’re a creepy ass shadow that merged with mine and now you’re the voice in my head and I am on my way to become a serial killer!” Perez said. He was getting angry. He didn’t like to kill people. The idea alone was making his stomach roll. He had eleven months and two days left and he hadn’t even started yet. 

_It doesn’t mean we can’t get along._

“I’m not that desperate,” Perez snapped, getting up. He needed a shower. 

_Yet._ The voice said. 

~+~

The only way to shut Vanya up, Perez discovered was when he was passed out drunk or having sex. Vanya would be silent for hours on end and Perez would be able to think. 

Sex was the far better option. He needed his head on straight when he was going to kill people and vanish without a trace. 

_I could help,_ Vanya said. 

“How could you help?” Perez asked despite himself. He hadn’t talked to anyone for three days now as he was going over his plans. He would just kill a homeless – man. There was no way he was going to kill a woman or a kid. He still had a shred of humanity and compassion in him. 

_Homeless people are careful. They might be desperate but they know that the world hates them and they are used to cruelty,_ Vanya said. _You don’t want to befriend one of them, do you? That would just be wrong._

“So what? Who would you kill?” 

_Women and children are easy enough._

“I don’t like you,” Perez said. 

The shadow, his shadow, shrugged, even Perez didn’t. It was uncanny. _I’m just trying to help. The sooner you kill them, the sooner you are free._

“You too,” Perez said. He didn’t like to admit it to himself, but he was curious about Vanya. About what he was and why he had to babysit Perez while he paid back his debt to Mort. He wasn’t going to ask. 

~+~

The first one was an old man. It was kind of an opportunity thing. Perez was on his way back from buying cigarettes, taking a shortcut through the dark, deserted park and the old man was just there. Alone in the park. No one else around. Perez stabbed him a few times. Just to be sure, but then Mort was there. Just standing beside the old man’s body and looking at him. Then Mort looked up. 

“That is one,” Mort said. He was still the most beautiful thing Perez had ever laid his eyes on. A shiver ran down his spine and he swallowed. It sounded too loud in the silence. Hell, even his breathing sounded to loud in this silence. “Ten more to go.” 

Perez nodded, he couldn’t speak. And then Mort was gone and Perez was alone with the body and the voice in his head. 

_You better get out of here. There is blood on your clothes,_ Vanya said. 

“Right,” Perez muttered. 

_Move,_ Vanya urged. 

Perez started walking. He didn’t run, because that would look suspicious. 

Once he was home he sank to the floor, his back against the door and just breathed and then he lit a cigarette with shaking hands. He succeeded on the third try. Inhaled deeply, let the smoke sit in his lungs for a moment too long and then exhaled. 

_You okay?_ Vanya asked. 

Perez didn’t answer, just smoked his cigarette and let his body shake. He didn’t know if he could do it again. He knew he had to do it again. 

“What will he do to me if I don’t deliver?” Perez asked once he finished his cigarette and the shaking had stopped. Why hadn’t he thought of refusing before? 

_He’s going to rip your soul out._ Vanya said. 

“He’s going to kill me, okay…,” Perez said, getting up from the floor. 

_Eventually, yes, but do you think that will be the end of it?_ Vanya asked. His voice was softer somehow. Melancholy. 

“Is that how you ended up being…whatever you are?” Perez asked, pouring himself a drink. 

Vanya kept quiet. Perez started to drink. 

~+~

The girl was flat chested and Perez didn’t remember her name. It didn’t matter. She was warm and soft and a bit overweight. Her black hair and pale skin reminded him of Mort but that was all that reminded him of Mort. She was in any other aspect too different. 

She moaned softly, gasping like she was struggling for breath when he ate her out. Her short fingers with the black nails were in his hair. Pulling. He kinda liked it. His head was blessedly empty. All there was, was to feel. Her and her arousal and his own. 

She flopped down once her orgasm washed over her and he kissed her cheek, because she turned away when he tried to kiss her on the mouth. Just as well. 

“Condoms,” she said. Her voice was small and breathless and he could still feel her heart beatingtoo fast in her ribcage. 

He grabbed one from the nightstand and she spread her legs. 

It didn’t take long for him to come and once he did, he got up and put on his clothes. She didn’t ask if he wanted to stay. He didn’t. 

She turned her head into the pillows and closed her eyes. 

For a split second he thought about killing her. He could bash her head in with that ridiculous dragon-paperweight. 

But she was young and she had let him in and – he didn’t want to do it. 

Better to stick with the old. 

~+~

_Or the sick,_ Vanya said. 

“I can’t smell the terminal sickness on people,” Perez replied. He was on his second cup of coffee and realizing that this conversations with Vanya didn’t feel as messed up as it probably should have. He hadn’t been a good man before, but he thought he was getting worse. 

_I can. If you want my help,_ Vanya said. 

“Is that even allowed? Won’t Mort get mad?” 

_Are you afraid of him?_ Vanya asked. 

“Sure am. He is Death. I don’t know if there is anything more terrifying.” 

_You know there was a time when people didn’t fear Death, but respected him._

“Welcome to the modern world. We lost respect for everything.” 

Vanya sighed. _You want my help or not?_

“Will it cost me?” Perez asked. 

_Oh, yes, but it won’t be anything you can’t live without,_ Vanya replied. 

How much worse could his life become, he thought. “Okay.” 

He had the impression his shadow smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Ischa’s tumblr](http://ischa-posts.tumblr.com) Where I post art, snippets, ideas and give away books at random.

~Three~

 

The old sick woman he smothered with a pillow at least died in her sleep, Perez thought. He still felt dirty afterwards. It didn’t help that Mort was as beautiful as ever standing at her sickbed and looking down at her like she was precious to him. 

He looked at Perez like he was a bad behaving pet that had to learn its lesson. Perez wanted to hate him for that. It wasn’t like his powers were something he wanted to have. He had been born with them. He hadn’t used them in a very responsible way, true, but he hadn’t know any better. 

Mort should really cut him some slack. He was doing his best. He was paying his debts back, wasn’t he? He was putting up with Vanya too. And Vanya was creepy as hell. 

“Are you going to deliver one every month now? Like it’s a TV you’re paying off?” Mort asked. His lips curled into something like a smile. 

“You gave me a year,” Perez said. 

“That I did,” Mort replied and vanished. 

_Better we get out of here as well,_ Vanya said. 

Perez nodded. 

~+~

The sick woman was easier than the old man for sure. She had been dying anyway. Half of Perez had expected Mort to refuse because her time was clearly near anyway. He most likely had only shorted her life about a few months. 

_He likes you, that’s why,_ Vanya said. 

“Funny way to show it,” Perez replied. Another one-room apartment in another big city. Still nine lives to snuff out. His life was a fucking mess. 

The shadow shrugged. Perez was getting used to his shadow not moving like it should be. In a way it was good to have someone to talk to about this. Even if it was only a shadow and a voice in his head.

_He’s an immortal being. I guess he does work in mysterious ways. He didn’t kill you and he promised to leave you alone as soon as you paid back your debt and stay out of trouble. That is more than other people got._

Perez wondered if Vanya had been one of those other people. “He didn’t kill me because I owe him.” 

_He didn’t kill you because he likes you,_ Vanya insisted. 

Perez wasn’t in the mood to argue. He knew he should be glad he was still alive. 

~+~

Sometimes the power, or magic, or whatever you wanted to call it was tingling just under his fingertips. It was like it needed an outlet, he felt nervous and like he needed to move then. 

“Going running,” he said throwing a hoodie on. 

_You realize I’m not your girlfriend and don’t stay home, right?_ Vanya asked. 

“Right,” Perez said. It was disturbing how fast he got used to living with Vanya. To threatening him like a real person no matter that Perez couldn’t see him, except when the shadow moved in a way it shouldn’t. He didn’t even know if Vanya could take another form than that of Perez’s shadow. His curiosity was getting the better of him, and Vanya said before that they should try to get along. 

_Are you going to run or are you going to fuck?_ Vanya asked. 

“I’m gonna run,” Perez said and then after a second of hesitation. “Does it bother you?”

_You fucking people?_

“Yeah…”

_No. You’re human, humans have needs._

“What about Mort?” Perez asked. 

Vanya shifted, or the shadow shifted, plastering itself to the wall so Perez had to look at it. It was unnerving because he knew that Vanya was staring at him, but he couldn’t see any eyes, or other facial features. It was just black. A cut out, no more substantial than air. 

_Are you asking me if he fucks?_ Vanya wanted to know. 

“Guess I am.” Perez tried to shrug it away, but he did want to know if Mort fucked around with – mortals or other things. 

_You have it bad for him. I don’t blame you. Pretty much everyone has it bad for him. Most people are lucky enough to see him just once and then they move on anyway._

“Move on? Where?”

_How should I know? I’m still here, am I not? _Vanya snapped.__

__“Yeah, you are. I thought maybe that is what you are-”_ _

___Pretty much everyone and everything was something else at one time in their existence. Look at you, you grow old, you die, you decompose, and then you transform into something else._ _ _

__Perez really had no idea if Vanya was talking about the human body or soul. And maybe that was a discussion better left for another day. One where he was drunk – no matter that he couldn’t hear Vanya when he was drunk._ _

__“Okay. Point taken,” Perez said. He was still standing in the small hall and he was feeling more and more like a caged animal. He needed to feel his body move. He grabbed the keys and left the apartment._ _

__Running always took his mind off of things._ _

__~+~_ _

__There was a dead bird on the grass in the park and Perez’s fingers itched to touch it and bring it back. It wasn’t dead long. He-_ _

___You better not,_ Vanya said. _ _

__“I need an outlet for this energy,” Perez said under his breath. He looked around, but no one was close by._ _

___Do you know the story of Death and the Healer?_ Vanya asked. _ _

__“No.”_ _

___Wanna hear it while you’re jogging slowly away from that dead bird?_ Vanya replied. _ _

__“Okay,” Perez said._ _

___Once upon a time-_ _ _

__“Wait, is that a real story?” Perez cut in._ _

___Might as well be,_ Vanya replied. _As I said, once upon a time, there was a poor boy whose mother was dying, so he prayed to all the gods and demons to help him, but because he was poor the demons weren’t interested and because he wasn’t beautiful the gods weren’t either. But Death heard the boy’s plea and he made a bargain with the boy.__ _

__“This can’t be good,” Perez muttered._ _

__Vanya laughed softly. _It wasn’t that bad at first. Death made the boy his apprentice. He gave the boy a gift too, so he could better serve Death. As long as the boy served Death, he would not take the boy’s mother. They boy was afraid, of course, but he was young and he loved his mother very much, so he said yes.__ _

__“What was the gift Death gave the boy?” Perez asked, slowing down. He was starting to feel better. Maybe it was partly because of the story._ _

___He gave him the ability to bring people back from the brink of death,_ Vanya answered. _ _

__“He could bring anyone back?”_ _

___No, there was a catch, if a shadow was at the feet of the dying person, the boy was allowed to save them, if a shadow was at the dying person’s head he had to collect their soul._ _ _

__“Of course. It was all a game to Death, wasn’t it?” Perez asked, stopping at a bench and sitting down._ _

___Maybe. Who can say? Want to hear the rest of the story?_ _ _

__“Yeah,” Perez said, even if he had a bad feeling about it._ _

___The boy did good work, he became a famous healer and rich too. He and his mother lived comfortably. And then one day the king’s daughter got sick and no healer could help her, so they sent for the boy, who was a young man by now. As soon as he laid eyes on her he fell in love and wanted to save her life, but the shadow had wandered to her shoulders already and he knew that her soul belonged to Death. He told the king that there was nothing he could do. The king pleaded and offered him riches, but the boy kept repeating there was nothing to be done and then the king offered him the hand of the princess. The boy accepted._ _ _

__“What a fool,” Perez said._ _

__Vanya chuckled. _He was in love. He saved the princess and Death came to collect his mother’s soul. And the boy’s too.__ _

__“He spared the princess?” Perez asked._ _

___He did. She lived a long life and then she died and he collected her soul too. She never saw the healer or her parents again,_ Vanya said. _ _

__Perez had the stupid thought that Vanya had been that princess, but – no. It was just a fairy tale. “I bet she didn’t even love the boy,” Perez said._ _

___Probably not,_ Vanya replied._ _

__“So, what does this story have to do with the dead bird?”_ _

__Vanya sighed. _The boy was pretty much the first Necromancer, Perez. That is what they do, they bring people back from the dead or the brink of dead. But it was never allowed to keep them alive for long. What you did.__ _

__“I didn’t know there were rules!”_ _

___Should have known it came with a price,_ Vanya said calmly. _Back to the bird. You can still heal people, snatch them away, they aren’t Death’s until the shadow consumes them. It doesn’t take long, but there is a time window you can work with.__ _

__“I can’t see the shadow.” Perez said frustrated._ _

___You’ll have to learn then. It’s there, you just need to find a way to see it,_ Vanya replied. _If you want to. And I advise you to, because that power will eat away at you otherwise.__ _

__“Mort didn’t say anything about that,” Perez replied._ _

___Why should he? One Necromancer less in the world for him to worry about._ _ _

__“But he made us,” Perez argued. “He should take responsibility.”_ _

___Want to take that up with him?_ Vanya asked. _ _

__“No,” Perez said. At least not now. He had to get a grip on his powers first, not to mention pay back the debt._ _

___Didn’t think so. Can we go home now?_ _ _

__“Yes,” Perez said getting up from the bench._ _


End file.
